Connecticut western news., 1887-06-22
THE HUMAN MAW.
A Few Pretty Stories About
 Mans Storage Capacity.
Men With Ravenous Appetites and the
 Stomach of an Ostrich.

Men With Ravenous Appetites and the Stomach of an Ostrich.
 Elizabeth Charlotte, the Duchess of Orleans, writing under the date of De- ccmber 6, 1716, says: "Thc late King, Mons. the Dauphin, and the Due de Berri were terrible caters. I have often seen the King cat four plates of different kinds of soup, whole pheasant, partridge, dish of salad, two thick slices of ham, mutton favored with gar lie, platcful of pastry, and finish his rcpast with fruit and hard -boiled eggs" There was good old German from Wurtembcrg where My Lord Hamlet at- tended the university, who had a fine fac
 ul'y for storing away provcnder. His case is we'll attested. For wager he would eat a whole sheep or a whole pig, | "r put out of sight a bushcl of cherries. st n and all He lived until he was about 80 years of agc, greater portion of the time exhibiting the pcculiarity of his appetite, which, to say tho least,
 must have been very eccentric ono. Thus, he would chew glass, carthcn- ware and flint in,o small fragments. He had an especial preference for cater pillars, mice and birds, and when these were not procurable he would content i himself with mineral substances.
 l Once he put down his "maw and gulr' a pen, the ink, and the sand | bounce, and he would have gobolcd the inkstand, too, had he not been restrained. Taylor, tho water poet, tells of Nicholas Wood, of the County of Kent, in England, who was tolerable good trcnchermau. On one occasion he got away with whole sheep; at another time with several rabbits; at third with three doz. n | pigeons-well grown pigeons, not squabsi again, with eighteen yards of black buildings, and on two other occasions sixty pounds of cherries and three pccks of damsons. Dr.. Copeland, in speaking of two children who had wonderful appetites, the youngest, SC, years old, being the worst, said: !: | "Thc quantity of food devoured by her was astonishing. Every thing that could be laid hold of, even in its raw state, was seized up almost greedily. Among other articles an uncooked rab- bit, half pound of candies and some butter were taken at one time. The mother stated that the little girl who was apparently in good health other wise, took more food, if she could possibly obtain it, than the rest of her family, consisting of six besides her self"
 A trife over hundred years ago London youth ate five pounds of shoul- der of lamb and two quarts of green peas in fifty minutes; and Polish sol- dier who was presented at the Court of
 Saxony, succeeded in one day in getting outside of twenty pounds of beef and half roast calf with the appropriate fix ings. When George III was king, q watchmaker's apprentice, nineteen years of age, in three quarters of an hour de- vourcd leg of pork weighing six pounds and a proportionate quantity of peas pudding, washing all down with a pint of brandy, taken in two lots. The tall Nick Davenport the actor, is known to have eaten seven-pound turkey at a single sitting. Instances of depraved appetite are numerous, and men have been known to swallow fire, swords, spi- ders, flies, toads, serpents, cotton, hair, clay, chalk, flint, musket balls and earthenwarc. Ono man could swallow billiard balls and gold watches. In the New York medic al journal for 1882 Q record is made of q man who could swallow clasp knives with impunity. One day he ovcrdd the business by swallowing fourteen, and ii killed him, which we'll it might. In 1870, in England, two men of Wiltshire wagered with each other as to which could consume the greatest quantity oi food in the shortest space of time. One of them plotted from existence six pounds and half of rabbit, loaf ol bread and two pounds of cheese in { quarter of an hour, and ho was SC pleased with the appreciation he received from the bystanders that he finished of with beef-steak, pint and half ot gin and half pint of brandy. Good